Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Need help with your R&D projects?

My column this week in the Financial Post looks at a brave new resource for innovative businesses: a government-funded program that helps connect innovative companies with grad students interested in doing commercial R&D.

The program, MITACS’ Accelerate, is bridging the gap between Canada’s universities and its private-sector innovators. Last year the program created 600 placements, and this year it’s expected to arrange 1300 more!

Excerpt:
"The beauty of Accelerate is it's made for companies of any size, but priced for small businesses. A four-month internship costs companies $7,500 (federal and provincial governments chip in to match that amount, thus meeting Accelerate's fee of $15,000). For that price, a company gets help describing its project, links to the best sources of help, the services of a grad student for four months (including some expenses), and hands-on monitoring by a university professor."

For the full story, click here.

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